way leading to heaven, and preparative for the possession of it. They are necessary in this respect, that it is certain, that no man who has the opportunity after his conversion for a life of good works, will ever get to heaven in any other way. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Heb. xii. 14. We must not only enter in at the strait gate, but we must walk in the narrow way which leadeth unto life. Neither do any walk in Christ, unless they walk before him in true holiness. Those who would hope for heaven hereafter, must have it begun in their souls here. Their hearts must be in some measure conformed to the Divine nature and will, that they may be attempered and qualified for the enjoyment and employments of the heavenly world. How could such men find comfort and pleasure in the eternal service of God, to whom his service here is ungrateful and burdensome? None, therefore, are in the way to heaven, but those who, by a life of holiness, are preparing for and labouring after a meetness to be partakers of an inheritance among the saints in light. There is nothing more certain, than that a life of sin and impiety, sloth and irreligion, leads down to the chambers of death; and it is therefore equally certain, that Christ Jesus leads none to heaven in that road. It is true, indeed, that we may be in the way to heaven, while compassed with many infirmities, while groaning under much deadness and formality in duty, while liable to many involuntary surprises into sin, while greatly defective in our religious attainments, and in our conduct both towards God and man. But they have not the hope of the gospel who live in the wilful neglect of known duty, who deliberately indulge themselves in known ways of sinning against God, who roll any iniquity as a sweet morsel under their tongue, or live

in an allowed violation of the laws of righteousness, charity, and peace towards men. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." And if any man have the Spirit of Christ, the fruit of the Spirit in him will be "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: and "they who live in the Spirit, will also walk in the Spirit." We must, by a patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, if we would inherit eternal life.

3. Good works are necessary as acts of obedience to God's commands, and a just acknowledgment of his dominion over us. By right of creation, the blessed God has an unalienable claim to homage and honour from us. By the immutable laws of our very being and nature, as his creatures and dependants, we are under bonds of subjection and obedience to him. The grace of the gospel does not cancel those natural obligations, or lessen the force of them. Christ came not to destroy the law: nor do we make void the law through faith, but on the contrary we establish it. The great God has not laid down his right of sovereignty and dominion over us, by affording us a medium of reconciliation to himself, and a title to eternal happiness; but rather has in this way laid us under further and stronger obligations to obedience. Our freedom from the curses and severe demands of the moral law, as a covenant of life, is so far from freeing us of our duty towards it as a rule of practice, or excusing us from a careful observance of its precepts, that the glorious liberty we are made partakers of is given us for this very end," that we may serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives." Though the moral law be presented to us now under some different respects

and considerations, from what it was originally, yet the same law remains the rule of obedience, confirmed and enforced (as such) by the gospel itself. Whence it follows, that to live a careless, sinful, sensual, worldly life, in the neglect of our duty towards God and our neighbour, is more aggravated rebellion against God, than the same life of impiety would have been under the covenant of works. For now, a life of impiety is not only a violation of the precepts of the law, but of the gospel too; and the greater discoveries God has been pleased to make of his glorious perfections, the greater manifestations he has made of his goodness and mercy, the greater are our obligations to obedience, and consequently the greater will be our rebellion, as well as ingratitude, if we continue disobedient. We are therefore to consider, that instead of God's suspending his right of dominion, or abating our obligations to obedience, under the present dispensation of gospel light and love, he requires and expects of us greater watchfulness and care to please and honour him, greater purity and holiness, than under the more legal and imperfect dispensation of Moses. It is undoubtedly true, that those sins and imperfections, which were consistent with a state of grace under the mosaic dispensation, are not so now under the christian dispensation; wherein not only we have more light and knowledge, but christians indeed do obtain more purifying and quickening influences of the Spirit than they then ordinarily did. There is therefore no room to extenuate our falls into sin, by the examples of the jewish saints. For though that ministration was glorious, yet the ministration of the Spirit is more glorious, has a glory that vastly excelleth, 2 Cor. iii. 8-10. By the "beholding o. which glory of the Lord, we are changed into the

same image from glory to glory," ver. 18. Our enjoying the promises of the gospel lays us under the strongest and most indispensable obligations, to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God, 2 Cor. vii. 1. God forbid, that any of us should continue in sin, that grace may abound, or turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. This would determine us to be ungodly men, who deny the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, Jude, ver. 4. Thence it is, that the disobedience of those who despise or neglect the gospel, will bring upon them the greatest and most dreadful damnation. See Heb. x. 29.

4. Good works are necessary, as expressions of our gratitude to God for all his goodness to us, more especially for gospel grace, and most especially for the gracious influences of his blessed Spirit. Impossible it is for us to have any due conception how great our debt of gratitude is to our infinite Benefactor. He has made us, and not we ourselves; his hands have framed and fashioned us. He has preserved us through innumerable difficulties and dangers; and he has through all our lives continually followed us with loving-kindness and tender mercies. He has made this mighty globe for our use, with all its amazing variety of furniture, fitted to supply us with whatever is necessary, convenient, comfortable, or delightful. He has distinguished us from very much the greatest part of our fellow-creatures, by the abundance of our enjoyments, and the greatness of our privileges. And if all these, and the innumerable other instances of the inexpressible kindness and goodness of God to us, be not sufficient to excite our gratitude, and to attract our affections to such an infinite Fountain of benevolence, yet certainly our redemption, by Christ, our

enjoyment of gospel ordinances, our advantages to live to God in this world, and to be eternally happy in the enjoyment of him in the future state of everlasting light and love, are enough to carry our minds beyond admiration, and even to overwhelm them with astonishment. And what returns does the glorious God expect from us, for all this? No more than the love and obedience of our thankful hearts and lives. No more than to live to him, and delight in him; gratefully to receive, and faithfully to improve the benefits he is bestowing upon us. He requires nothing of us but that we should be ready to every good work, out of love and gratitude to God. How unworthy shall we therefore be for ever, of one smile of his countenance, or the least favour and kindness, if the infinite goodness of God, his infinite love and compassion in Christ, does not constrain us to renounce our lusts and idols, and make it our delightful endeavour to seek and serve him! He may well expostulate with such, as with his ancient people, "Will ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people, and unwise!" He justly may, and certainly will exclude such from the glory and blessedness of his eternal praises, who have not hearts to love him, and serve him, and praise him here. They who have ever tasted that the Lord is gracious, and have any becoming sense of their obligations to him, will study what they shall render to the Lord for all his benefits; they will delight in endeavours to glorify him; they will be solicitously careful of a constant conformity to his will, and take a peculiar pleasure and pains in following after holiness.

5. As I have distinctly considered in my last, good works are necessary evidences of the truth and sincerity of our faith in Christ. And I need only add